Voces Oral History Center Interview with Celeste Velazco

1322_Velazco_Celeste_1

Thu, 7/23 11:38AM • 1:07:20

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

United States; Social Distancing; Trump Administration Pandemic; Financial Impact; Coronavirus

LOC SUBJECT HEADINGS

Latinos (United States); Spanish-speaking people (United States); COVID-19 (Disease); Black lives matter movement--United States; Quarantine--Social aspects; Quarantine--United States;

Jackie Pedota 00:09

Today is Tuesday, July 14, 2020. My name is Jackie Pedota and I'm here today interviewing Celeste Velazco for the Voces Oral History Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Please know that this interview will be placed in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin. If there's anything you do not wish to answer or talk about, I will honor your wishes. Also, if there is something you want to talk about, please bring it up and we'll talk about it. Because we're not conducting this interview in person, I need to record you consenting. So, I'll ask you a series of five questions. Please say yes, I agree or no I do not agree after each one. There are two questions though that we need to make sure you agree to before we go on. Voces wishes to archive your interview along with any other photographs and other documentation at the Benson Library at UT Austin. We will retain copyright of the interview and any other materials you donate to Voces. Do you give Voces consent to archive your interview and your materials at the Benson Library?

Celeste Velazco 01:20

[In audible due to technical difficulties]

Jackie Pedota 01:24

Can you repeat that? Sorry, I didn't hear you.

Celeste Velazco 01:27

Yes, I do.

Jackie Pedota 01:29

Okay, just want to make sure this is super important that we have this part.

Jackie Pedota 01:33

Do you grant Voces copyright over the interview and any material you provide?

Celeste Velazco 01:39

Yes, I do.

Jackie Pedota 01:41

Do you agree to allow us to post this interview on the internet where it may be viewed by people around the world?

Celeste Velazco 01:48

Yes, I do.

Jackie Pedota 01:50

Thank you. So, we have many questions in the pre-interview form that we have already filled out. Uh, we use that information from the pre-interview form to help in research. The entire form is kept in a secure Voces server. Before we send it to the Benson, we would have stripped out any contact information from yourself or family members. So, that's not going to be a part of your public file. Your public file will only be accessible at the Benson Library. Do you wish for us to share the rest of your interview in your public file available to researchers at the Benson?

Celeste Velazco 02:27

[In audible due to technical difficulties]

Jackie Pedota 02:30

Sorry, can you repeat that?

Celeste Velazco 02:31

Yes.

Jackie Pedota 02:33

Okay cool.

Celeste Velazco 02:34

Is it too low? Is that it? Or is it just the connection?

Jackie Pedota 02:37

I think it might just be, um, going too low, which is typically fine, but with these things, that it's different when we're in person, like I want to make sure that it's very clear.

Celeste Velazco 02:47

Okay.

Jackie Pedota 02:39

Um, on occasion Voces receives requests from journalists who wish to contact our interview subjects. We only deal with legitimate news outlets. Do you give consent for us to share your your phone number or your email with journalists?

Celeste Velazco 03:03

No.

Jackie Pedota 03:05

Thank you. Awesome. So, thank you for bearing with me for that. Um, I know it's a very long preamble, so thank you for your patience. But Celeste if you can maybe start by telling us a little bit, um, about yourself.

Celeste Velazco 03:20

Okay, so I'm Celeste. Um, I'm originally from Venezuela born and raised. I came to the United States in 2014. So, I was 16 years old at the time. I'm currently a student in The University of Florida. I'm studying advertising and political science and minoring in French. I don't know what else is there to say about me.

Jackie Pedota 03:43

Um, are you a full-time student? Are you a part time student? Do you, um, do anything else outside of school?

Celeste Velazco 03:51

I'm a full-time student. I work two jobs currently. I used to work three. Um then other than that, I just write, like, over the summer and since COVID I've been trying to do and to develop other skills to learn new things. Just trying to get into creative design. So, try to do stuff like that. I sell speakers, um as a leisure thing, kinda brings me a little bit of money monthly. So, that's fun. But other than that, currently, there's not much to do. So--

Jackie Pedota 04:30

Three jobs is a lot. Has any of your work been impacted by COVID? You know, have you had to change what work looks like? Has have hours been cut? Have you had to switch jobs?

Celeste Velazco 04:45

So, one of my jobs I used to work, or I work at George Smathers Library for UF, and I used to be a student assistant. So, just kind of working the desk, helping books, um helping patrons with everything they needed and because of COVID that obviously wasn't a possibility anymore. And luckily, I had the chance of working from home. So, I've been doing social media for the specific branch that I'm in, which is an American Caribbean collection. Um so just kind of creating posts and it's kind of difficult because obviously, we don't have the opportunity to go into the stacks, that pictures, talk to people about what we're saying. So, it's kind of like a longer process of having to email whoever is the person related to what you're trying to promote, and then wait for their response and make it I guess, more official than just having like small talk in the hallway. Um so for one part it's that like there's a difficulty of creating content without having the accessibility to that content in a specific so we had to promote more digital collections, create our own graphics that maybe they don't do as well as having actual pictures of people. Um but grateful always that I had been with the opportunity of working from home, and my other job also moved from home. So, again, since I'm in this industry or field that is marketing related that is social media related, I've been granted with these possibilities. Again, the same difficulties of not being able to maybe use pictures that have, um, large groups that have gatherings with people. Um, but other than that it's just been working from home.

Jackie Pedota 06:29

How has that been working from home? You know, how, logistically, how has your routine changed and just, you know, how have you felt kind of just staying in one place for long periods of time?

Celeste Velazco 06:43

I guess it has its perks and disadvantages. In the perks side, is I don't have to wake up early for the bus. I don't have to bother about meal prepping and taking it taking it to UF. But at the same time, like I'm a very extroverted person, I like to talk to people I like, like even just being Hispanic, like hugging people saying hi to people like just having those random conversations with people that you just see in the office. And not having that really has been a challenge for me, because I don't have my roommates here, I haven't been able to see most of my friends. A lot of friends go down south. So, just not having the possibility of like, actual human interaction. Like I think I see more Publix employees than anyone else in my life in this past three months. So, I think that's been the biggest challenge for me. And if you want to talk to someone and you - is like you have to set up a meeting with them, or like ask them if they have, um, a little bit of time to talk to you. And like everybody's going through a lot of things you know, like mentally and physically, if you have kids, if you are a person who also doesn't like being enclosed. Um so it's kind of like am I bothering you? Can we talk? It's not the same as just seeing them. But at the same time, it's like, I'm home I'm more comfortable I guess I don't have to dress nice all the time wear makeup. Um and if I just want to go make lunch randomly then I can do that. But I think after like, I guess we didn't, I didn't expect this to be for this long so at the beginning I was like, okay, perfect like I don't have to go take the bus, I don't have to go out and do stuff, but at this point is like, can I please go do something outside of my house?

Jackie Pedota 08:36

So, um, you said that you see more Publix grocery store employees. Is there anything else that you have, you know, tried to do outside of, you know, staying home or what have you seen when you have gone out? Specifically in Gainesville? You know, what, what do you observe how are people acting, um, things like that.

Celeste Velazco 09:02

So, I go mostly to Publix because I don't have a car. So, um, I don't want to take an Uber, like that's risky as well. So, I just walk to Publix. And it's kind of shocking I guess because I'm very, I wear my mask, I wear gloves, I try not to be around people, I try not to touch too much, like I'm just touching what I'm grabbing, like what I know I'm gonna to buy, but then you see a lot of people know wearing masks, not wearing gloves, like not caring. I had to go to the mall once because I needed to return something that, like, I had to like I had my window of time, and I had to ask something to the employer and the employee. And she just came so close to me and she was wearing a mask, but it still is like we still have to keep six feet away. Like you can ask the right question from over there. It's just like I guess like, if you're young because we got so, we got so much information from the media when it first started. So, we think though because we're young it's not going to affects us, but actually I have a friend who's 25 years old, she doesn't smoke, she doesn't drink as much, like just leisurely, and she got COVID. And she had to go to Shands, the hospital in Gainesville, and she had to stay for a week, and it is crazy because again, she's only three years older than me. She can be seen as low risk and she still had trouble breathing. She still has to stay in the hospital for a week. And I just again it's shocking that so many people are not paying attention to this, that so many people are just like "I'm not gonna wear a mask I can't breathe," and it's like you're going to be in the grocery store for 30 minutes. It's really not that hard to wear the mask. But other than that, I guess I haven't gone anywhere else like to the office in the - my apartment complex, um, to pick up packages and they require that you wear a mask which I think is great. I try doing working out outside but it's just weird because I'm alone, I'm a female. I'm small like I really, I don't want to think about the possibilities that could happen to me if I was to spend too much time outside in the street. It's just been that and Publix and that's it.

Jackie Pedota 11:20

Wow. So, that's crazy that you said your friend, um, ended up being COVID positive. So, how based on your connection with her how how was that experience like? Were you afraid for your safety based off of you know, like contact tracing or um, how was that?

Celeste Velazco 11:42

I didn't see her when all this happened. Like I hadn't seen her in a while. So, I knew that I wasn't infected and at the same time I again like I seen a lot of people bar hopping, going to restaurants just no not caring. And I'm not like that. Like even when bar started opening or restaurants I was like, I don't feel safe. Like even just ordering takeout was like, hmm, I don't know, like, seems risky. And at this point I'm not ordering food just because of how many cases we have in Florida. But with my friend like I was, I was definitely worried just because of that thought of like having, because I guess at the beginning like you don't know anyone, right that has COVID. And you're like, oh yeah, like that person or like you see it on Twitter or you hear about it on Facebook, but you don't actually have have a direct connection to COVID. And then hearing that a close friend of mine had it was like shocking and at the beginning is like obviously she had to get tested and it was eight to 10 days and it's like it's a lot of time to be waiting for you to actually have to stay home not having any trace any contact with anyone just in case you infect them. And then she started developing symptoms and that's when she was like, well I have to go and when she went to the hospital that's what they asked her again and the results came faster and she was positive. And I just kept texting her just in case something happened, like in her experience she couldn't have any visitors. So, of course, I couldn't go and see her and just in case something happened, but it was just like, I guess we FaceTime and that was it, like, what else can you do when someone has it? I, so again, like I just kept texting her. And at the end, she was able to leave the hospital go to her home and she felt better. Um and I guess like, it's also good that she was in Gainesville, because she has a lot of clinical trials, so that obviously helped her with her progress. Um but I don't want to think like, "What if she was down south in Miami where there's so many cases and at this point, so many hospitals don't have any beds anymore?" Like this happened a month ago when we didn't have as many cases as we have now.

Jackie Pedota 14:02

Oh, yeah. And so did this happen, like, during this semester or had the semester already ended? Because I know, you know, most universities, you know, it was kind of a little over halfway into the semester they transition to you know, mostly remote. And so, did this happen while you all were still you know, mainly on campus?

Celeste Velazco 14:26

It happened in June. So, no, it was all remote already.

Jackie Pedota 14:33

Okay, um so, I guess my next question is how, how did it feel you know, transitioning, um, from from campus, you know, when you first realized that this was going to be something significant, and just what did that process and experience look like for you?

Celeste Velazco 14:52

It was definitely stressful. Like on my side, all my classes were online already because of the decision that I made at the beginning of the semester. So, I wasn't stressful because of my classes, but I saw a lot of students getting because not everyone is conditioned to have remote learning to have online classes. So, just seeing that I was like, "I feel bad for you." Um, for me, I didn't have that experience, but when it comes to jobs, it was definitely like, what is going to happen now? Like, how is this gonna look again, in the spring semester, I was working three jobs. One of them. The other one that I didn't mention was also with the libraries, um, doing social media for the general library's account. So, before we even started, we had to like plan ahead and be like, okay, what are the deliverable deliverables of the semester? Like, what is the out, what else do we have to get done for you to finish the job? Seems like okay, we have to take pictures, we have to talk to people, we have to and at the same time, you have to take the precautions, right? Because you have the possibility of still seeing people in person, but it wasn't like those measures of wearing mask. So, I was like, wearing sanitizing, like using hand sanitizer every two seconds and like trying not to touch too many things. And people just like looking at me like crazy, but I was like, "I'm not gonna risk it." Um, so it was just like that, like, it was a stressful situation of like, "Okay, we have to get things done, we have to make sure that everything is ready for you when you start working from home." So, on that job, like perfect, and then for that job in specific, I had a presentation at the end just going to explaining every everything that I did for the semester, and it was kind of sad and good at the same time, because the presentation was supposed to be in person, so it was like, kind of uncomfortable for me to just like, see a bunch of people in on zoom, and just can I explain everything to them. But it was also the perk that my family was able to be on that presentation, so it just made me happy that like that was a possibility because if it was in person, that wouldn't have that wouldn't have been the case. Um for my other jobs, again, it was stressful. Like, "Am I gonna still have a job?" Like because it was a big the ending of spring semester, like I think we all we had like one month left of classes. And I was like, "Am I gonna have these jobs for the summer? What's gonna happen? Like, am I still gonna get hired? How is that gonna work? And are we gonna come back for the summer?" So, there were a lot of questions that you ask yourself and that probably your employer is asking themselves too and that they don't have the answer, but you have to ask them is like, "I'm not trying to put more stress on you. But I have these doubts." And I'm lucky enough that all my employers were very communicative with me. They were very proactive on everything that had to be answered and everything that had to be done, but I know that other people had a lot of rescinded job offers, internships. But yeah, it was definitely I challenge. It was a process. Um, but I guess like, we're adaptable, and I feel like when you're an immigrant and you go through the whole process of like, moving to another country, you kind of become more flexible with things and you cannot become, is like, you adapt easier to environments that might not be ideal. So, I feel like yes, because of the experience that I've gone through the situation wasn't as hard for me as it might have been for other people.

Jackie Pedota 18:14

And so, you mentioned that I guess your main concern through the transition was like job related. And so, um, as a follow up, you know, have you seen any sort of impact, you know, financially due to, um just the changing nature of what COVID has done to what work looks like for you?

Celeste Velazco 18:37

Personally, I think not. And I'm gonna say this because, due to the current situation, I've been put in a position where I've been able to save money, just because I'm not going out. I'm not going to restaurants. Um I'm not going to Starbucks every morning and buying a $5 coffee. Just those types of situations allow me to save a lot of money. And because of everything that was happening and like, I saw everyone going through the crisis, and like not getting the jobs and me not being able to say like, "Oh yes, I'm gonna have a job in July, like for sure." I was like, again I'm not gonna spend money. So, I was like very, I was limiting myself a lot on like groceries. I wasn't buying like clothes, I wasn't buying anything that it wasn't extremely necessary and because of that I haven't, I'm not in a situation where I'm like, "I don't have enough money to survive until like, December," to say that.

Jackie Pedota 19:41

And you said just the fact that you've been able to, um you know, continue to work remote. I'm sure that that has helped a lot. Um you know, based off of what you know, maybe from friends or, you know, other other coworkers or their colleagues do you find like most student employees have been able to continue to work from home or do you find you know, they've been financially impacted by COVID?

Celeste Velazco 20:10

I think it's the second option. Most of my friends either work retail, or they're working the libraries, or they work other jobs that you can't perform remotely. So, either they've been forced to find jobs in retails that are opening, risking their lives clearly, or they just been staying at home. And I guess some of us or some of them have the possibility or have the option of being financially supported by their parents, but um some of us don't. So, that was like my thing, that I, I don't have the possibility, so of course, I do have to continue working and I didn't want to risk my life doing retail. So, I had the possibility, but most of my friends definitely like they worked in the mall and the mall closed. So, they were out of jobs and at least they qualified for the unemployment check. But I heard even from professors that say like, I heard a lot of students that don't have experiences this summer that had jobs and internship offers and they got rescinded and they can't do anything else because a lot of industries are not hiring.

Jackie Pedota 21:25

Yeah, and you know, for for students that have been financially impacted, have you, um you know, seen, have you seen any sort of communication or responses by the university or by the community to kind of help support students since, you know, Gainesville is very much a college town and so what have you seen kind of that response look like?

Celeste Velazco 21:52

So, when it comes to financial aid, I've seen a lot of grants and other aids for students, which is paid and I received some of them so that, like, it helped me a lot. Um and I hear like all there on Facebook groups like people talking about it. So, I'm glad that some of them have been able to get some of that money. However, I think the most challenging thing right now for a college student, especially for UF students, is the whole grant process. So, of course, since apartment complexes are not affiliated to UF, and they're not constantly in the leases, but if UF is going to do online, if you're not going to come back for the fall, or even just right now in the summer semester, then why will you be paying for an apartment that you're not going to use? So, it's a lot of talk right now and there's definitely a lot of money that goes in, that you have to spend monthly in that place that you're not going to be using that you're not going to be living in. So, I think most of that like, even though we're receiving this help from UF, I think at the end of the day you, students have stress, financial stress, just think about their apartments and it's not like you can easily find someone to sublease it, because there's no one coming, like everyone is in the same situation. Like if you go to the Facebook group, there's so many people trying to sublease their apartments, and no one is taking them.

Jackie Pedota 23:15

And so, you started, um kind of talking about, I guess, the the transition to fall. And so, you know, based off of the communication you've received from university and just I guess the way that Florida is trending right now, public health wise, you know, what are your thoughts and feelings about what, um fall might look like for you as a student?

Celeste Velazco 23:42

So, as of right now, all my classes are online, which so grateful. One of my jobs already told me that it's going to be remotely, the other one most likely will be in person. Um however, I don't think I'm going to have that much contact with students. But just thinking like as a general bubble of UF, I do not think that we should be opening, um, because there's still a lot of classes are happening in person. Like there's, um, chem labs or bio labs, or big classes, and they're going to be outside and it's like, well, we all know Florida weather, like, how are these going to be outside? If it's raining, you know, if it's so hot, and then it's not only the students, that's a thing, like, for example, the libraries are going to open. And I'm going to talk about the libraries because that's my personal experience. But they're going to open, and we don't have a clear sense of who's going to be in the entrances, asking students to wear masks, or asking students to be six feet away. So, is this going to be the librarian's job? And are the librarians going to get paid extra for that? Are they risking their lives clearly by asking students to wear their mask? Or anyone who's gonna come into the libraries. So, I, what are we doing for the librarians for staff members to make them feel safe? And at the same time, it's like a lot of them have children and they have to worry about their children going to school if that's going to happen, which probably will. And that's another conversation about teachers not getting paid enough, not having enough material for students. And if they go back to school, then there's more probabilities of them getting sick. And then going back, like it's a whole cycle, there's a lot of things that I feel like we're not thinking about, we're not taking into consideration and then if the students don't like, if their children don't go to school, then they obviously can't go to work. So, it seems like, it's a lot that where, there is a lot of pressure and stress that were put in into staff members and teachers and professors and students into even just like cleaning members, like they are the ones who have to clean after you and they're going to be the most exposed and they don't get paid well, and they're not going to get as much benefits as someone with tenure will probably. So, just from the numbers, I think, definitely, I appreciate that most of the classes are online, I'm going to say that. But I heard a lot of freshmen, for example, who don't want to miss on the college experience and that still want to come here, even though they're not going to have online classes. I heard a lot of students who don't want to be home anymore, and they just want to come to Gainesville, and it's like, "Okay, I understand that you're definitely tired of being home." But we are, I feel like Americans are very individualistic and we have to start thinking more as a collective for the common good, like for everyone's good, and that is something that we're definitely seeing in Florida. So, we'll see how it plays out in the fall. I don't know how it's gonna go if we have like an X amount of students sick or if we have an X amount of staff members and faculty staff, but I guess we will see.

Jackie Pedota 26:59

And what do you feel, um you know, the communication has been like so far from the university like what...what are your thoughts? What have they communicated as it relates to the the fall?

Celeste Velazco 27:17

It's definitely been ambiguous um and very brief. Something, a conversation that I was having with someone after the, um what was it called, like the Board of Governors, where all the universities explained their plan, UF's plan seemed very ambiguous in comparison to other universities, in comparison to FIU, in comparison to FSU. And I've heard from other students and other universities that they're getting, they've gotten better communication from their universities and I totally understand that it is a difficult process, right? Like we don't know what's going to happen. Like I imagine that UF didn't know that we were going to have 1,500 cases this um, this past weekend, but I just wish they were more communicative with the students just because we're paying tuition. And that's another topic like, tuition hasn't been lowered even though we're going to have online classes in the fall semester, and we are paying tuition. We're here like we're your students. At least be more empathetic with us, just try to understand our situation as much as we try to understand yours. Like every time we have an email, it's like the same information. It's nothing concrete. Like I think the only thing, the only concrete thing that we had was past 10th, July 10, when we had the notification that we were going to have online classes and how is everything going to work. Um well, before that, they said, like you have to re-register for classes in July and there was panic everywhere and advisors were getting a bunch of emails just because there's not enough communication. And even then, when you work in UF, you see a lot of problems with the hierarchy of UF and even like just working in a department you see how many issues there are because you can have a conversation with someone and have a conversation with someone else and they're going to give you different information about what's happening. So, I just feel like we had better chains of communication.

Jackie Pedota 29:21

Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure that that can be very frustrating and confusing, uh, to to students and so what, um, I guess what would you say the consensus around like the the feelings regarding the fall I know you talked about like, you know, a lot of first year students, but I know you're not a first year student so you know what, what are other students saying? What are your friends kind of thinking as it regards to um just coming back in the in the fall? Like what are faculty - have faculty communicated with you all yet about you know, their expectations or their feelings about, I know because I know some faculty, you know, have communicated maybe more than, than the university itself as it relates to what's going on.

Celeste Velazco 30:13

Um so it was funny because on the 10th, when we got that email that classes were going to be online, two of my professors were sending emails as well saying, like, "This is gonna work, this is how it's gonna work." And I guess you have two different types of classes, like when you actually have to attend a zoom lecture at a specific time and the other ones like you just kinda work your progress. So, professors were kind of explaining the difference between that and how big classes are going to work and if we have any questions. And I appreciated that, because like, again, I don't know you and I feel weird just sending you an email out of nowhere, but the fact that you can establish that communication first and tell me that I can ask any questions if anything happens, I appreciated that. But again, that was like two professors out of four classes. So, it wasn't everyone and I guess it also depends on the school, the department, the professor itself, maybe they didn't feel the need. When it comes to other staff members that I talked, I feel like they're scared definitely because they don't know how everything's going to work. They don't know how everything with their families is going to work. Um some of them don't want to risk their lives which is completely understandable. But we have to go through it right like we, we have to keep our jobs. And we have to just go through whatever UF is going to ask us to do, just because there's not much to say on this. When it comes to students, I haven't talked to a lot of them, so I don't know what their consensus is. I know that from just like Facebook groups, like a lot of them aren't just going to stay home trying to sublease their apartments, um figuring out like their online classes and these are different like, I feel like when it comes to this, you have different communities, right? Because when we have international students and with I.C.E. decision last week, there was a lot of stress for them and it was like, well, we have to come back to campus, we have to find online classes. So, that was an extra stress that they were presented with and they had to come back to class to UF, regardless of the decision, regardless of how everything looks in Florida. And today, the decision was backtracked, um and I haven't heard from international students yet, but I'm going to guess that they're not going to choose risking their, risking their lives to come to UF every day if they don't have to. Um but I guess it depends on yourself, I guess it depends on like your decision, I gue.. And also, fraternities and sororities is another group, so they're trying to figure out how they're going to host their events, how they're going to recruit members. And UF did say that it was up to the sororities and fraternities to create their own plan to make sure that everyone is safe and that's having, putting a lot of expectations on them in my perspective.

Jackie Pedota 33:08

So, in thinking about kind of the groups, you know, I, yeah, yeah, I mean, your university is quite large. And so I think that it's, it's good to think about the the student groups individually and so, based off of, you know, and I know you, you identify self- identify as, Latinx and so you know, that that subgroup of students, you know, have you noticed anything in particular that has, um impacted Latinx students more than other students on campus? Or do you notice Latinx students like yourself, you know, maybe behaving in a way or acting in a way that might be different from other students in the general student body?

Celeste Velazco 33:56

From what I see on social media, um we're taking care of ourselves. I feel like we're more conscious, conscious of that. We're wearing masks, we're asking people to wear a mask. We--and even with the current situation nationally, like not even just because of COVID, we are asking people to vote. We are being, we're raising our voices, which I think I haven't seen before or I personally it could have happened before. But personally, I didn't see this much, this much movement in this particular community as I see now. Um I've seen a lot of activism going around, especially Miami, and like with their part and even in Gainesville, like there's a lot of things going on right now in the Hispanic and Latinx community. But other than that, I just can't say for sure if there's like any difference when it comes to Coronavirus, related to this age, Americans, white Americans versus Hispanic Latinx.

Jackie Pedota 35:10

And so, um, you know, you talked about, I guess the, the increase in, um like visibility of social movements and so have you, have you yourself participated in any of the, like movements or protests or done any sort of activism during this time?

Celeste Velazco 35:31

Basically protest? No. As I said, I'm a female, so I get very scared of going to situations that could put me at-risk, like by myself, I don't have friends in Gainesville, like a lot of friends in Gainesville, who would go with me to that. So, I just chose personally to try to contribute to these movements from home on my own. So, I just been signing petitions, donating money, and just kind of raising my voice in passing, like I have a big platform, but I can pass information on to people that I know. So, I've been trying to do that, support Black artists, support Black authors, and just trying to create the conversation in UF like with everything that was happening with Black Lives Matter with the other students, I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of staff members, faculties and just kind of insert that conversation there and be like, "So, what are we doing about this? Or what is UF's decision on this?" So, that's what I contributed with into personally, but I've seen a lot of friends going to protest down in Miami and other states. That is just amazing, honestly.

Jackie Pedota 36:46

And based on what you were saying about, you know, trying to, um support the movement locally through through UF, you know, how, how was that? Can you describe that more? You know, were there specific, um you know, protests that happened at UF? Were there like, was it well received? Kind of how was that experience?

Celeste Velazco 37:09

So, in UF, they did like a vigil for Breonna Taylor and um, other people who have been murdered by the police. Um and it's, I mean, I think it's amazing because it stayed there, like you can actually go and see it right now and this was a couple of weeks ago. And it was from the pictures that I saw, it was a lot of people who attended. Um in 34th, there was a wall and they put it all the names and someone decided to paint it with blue paint and just over the names, so there was a lot of people on Facebook asking for donations to kind of get the back, the wall back how it was. And we have to remember we're in Florida, we're in North Florida, so obviously, there's still some level of white supremacy here or people who don't agree with the Black Lives Matter movements, who are straight racist or who are not anti-racist. But I want to believe that the majority of the UF community does support these movements and does see, like the white supremacy that we are exposed to. When it comes to women's itself, there are a couple of organizations have been created or that already were created, that are trying to mobilize more people, that are trying to raise their voices. Um--and it's, I think, I guess for me, I didn't actively do the job of like looking for them when I should have, and that's totally my fault. But I guess like they're gaining more terrain right now, there's more Facebook groups, people are talking about this in their Facebook groups like UF class of 2022 like they're talking about this. And you see a lot of complicated conversations in the comments. Um and with everything that happened to UF, like it's not a lie. UF has rescinded the offers to students who have been racist on social media and now it's like a whole thing that some people told me that they didn't expect UF to do that. And I think that was the correct thing to do and when everything was happening, a lot of students were sending emails to UF, asking them to do the right choice. And I guess like, that's when you see like, Generation Z is very, is full of activism to be honest, like we're, we're, we can do what we can do, and you see that with Tik-Tok, you see that with UF decision. So, again, like on Facebook groups, I guess, people are not scared of being blindly racist on social media and they're not scared of UF doing anything about it, um but it's definitely been something that someone told me that it's going to change UF and how UF works about it. And we saw that in an email that UF have sent saying a bunch of things that they were going to do, but then again, that's very conflicted because they say that they were going to end prison labor and they didn't and they're going to keep using it for a year. So, then there's a lot of mobilization about this. So, yesterday, for example, yesterday Monday the 12th? No, the 13th. Sorry. The 13th, um there was like a call-to-action started calling UF and asking them to end prison labor and it seem like a lot of a lot of students a lot of Gainesville members were doing it.

Jackie Pedota 40:42

Yeah, so um, do you remember anything else that, you know, UF said that they were going to try to enact because of um, you know, the the protests and movements going on?

Celeste Velazco 40:56

There's the "Gator Bait" chant. Um I was, that definitely cost our reach by people. Um and there are still people like who say like, they're gonna sing it even though we're not, we're probably not gonna have football season. And it's just like, I feel like not to offend anyone, but I think it's just like a stupid thing. Like, you don't lose anyone by choosing not to say this phrase and you know that this is offensive to a group of people. So, why are you choosing to still say and why did you think that you have the authority to tell these group of people that they can't be offended by it? Like who? Who, who do you think you are basically? So, UF said that they were going to end that. We'll see how that goes when football season starts again. There's probably going to be some people who are going to choose to sing it in the stadium. So, that was one of the things. The other thing is that they were going to establish like a volunteer service community, something in the spring semester, so that people are more exposed to the Gaines - like people, students. They're more to the Gainesville community, they volunteer, they provide service. Um they said that they were going to create like a task force I believe, if I remember correctly. Um just kind of help with the with Black Lives Matter movement, we trying to get more Black stuff and even I think something interesting that happened is that it wasn't only UF but I belong to the college of journalism and within my college, they decided to have three town halls through the month of June. And the first two, it was mostly just listening to students, listening to different experiences within the college, within UF, and just trying to see what recommendations the students had related to not even like Black community, but also Hispanic, Latinx, Asian. And I think it was great that the conversation started, and they said that they're going to continue with these town halls during the month of um, this fall semester, and they will send like an email saying like, this is what we're going to do. So, one of the recommendations was to create a task force to make sure that diversity is implemented. Um but there were a lot of conversations made about not having enough diverse people of color, staff members, not having enough diverse classes, or even when you do have a diverse classes, class, there's a lot of topics that are not being talked about that are not being discussed. So, I don't know, I can't talk about other departments. But as as long as it goes about the college of journalism, it was great to see them making that effort and actually hearing students on their experiences and even faculty was there. So--

Jackie Pedota 43:51

And um for the purposes of other folks, you know, you and I know the controversy around "Gator Bait", but can you take just explain that a little bit more because there's going to be people that maybe don't know the context.

Celeste Velazco 44:06

So basically "Gator Bait" so the story goes I guess that white people - I'm trying to explain this in the most like simple way. But white people would grab um Black children and use them as bait to attract alligators, yeah gators, um to because gators will be hunted, like they're wanting to haunt gators. So, they will use Black children for this and there's a lot of documentation about this. There's a lot of imagery about this. If you read the story like, it's really, I think it's terrible. I didn't know about this because I'm not from Florida, but I'm guessing someone else should would know about this. So, basically, when you're in the stadium, when Gators play in, I think it was in the 90s that the chant started, but it was like, basically you call the other team "Gator Bait" and it's a whole song about it and a whole chant. And for people for years, this is not something that is just 2020, but for years, they've been saying that these chants is offensive to the Black community because of the story that comes from that. And people were saying that it doesn't matter because it's a chant and the story of it it's not related, like the chant didn't start because of Black children. That doesn't matter. Like at the end of the day, the imagery that the chat gives to Black communities to Black people, is not something good. It's not something that we should be perpetrating. And if we have the possibility of ending this right now, then why not? And then some people were saying like, "Why now? Like, why didn't we do this before if the chant has been in UF since the 90s." But it's like, "What, why do you care if we do it right now? If we don't do it now than when?" The important thing is that we're doing right now. Should we have done a couple of years ago? Yes, totally like this shouldn't - we shouldn't have to have this conversation in 2020, but we're doing it right now. UF is doing it. So, let's do it. I don't think that explains like everything that goes along the chant.

Jackie Pedota 46:24

Yeah, just some context because you know, not at not everyone will be familiar with with Gainesville and UF. But so, based on what you had shared, you know, would you say that during this this entire period, because not only you know, has has COVID happened, but we've had the the Black Lives Matter Movement as well as other social movements. And would you say throughout this, um period of time, you've maybe received better communication from your college um, versus the university as a whole or, you know, kind of what do you um, what do you think?

Celeste Velazco 47:04

I think they're in the same level. Um the college of journalism couldn't say anything that UF wouldn't allow them to say the same as other UF departments. Um I, I don't think that anyone, any department, any college was above the others. Um, so yeah, it's just sad.

Jackie Pedota 47:32

And kind of going back to um, to fall, and thinking about the the fall, you know, has has UF shared any, has your university shared any any policies that they're going to um, put into place or any any sort of, like, new regulations that they're putting into place for for people?

Celeste Velazco 47:56

So, the main thing is wearing a mask. You have to wear a mask in every building that you're in, even in the dorm, like if you're in your dorm, you don't have to wear a mask because your roommate is kind of considered your family in that situation. But if you go to the dorm bathroom or to the dorm common areas, you do have to wear a mask. Now, again, who's gonna implement any of that? Who knows? But you do if you go to any um hall, if you go to the libraries, you do have to wear a mask, you have to keep social distancing. When it comes to the libraries, there's going to be less people inside of them. So, I don't know how many people there's going to be in each library, depends on like the space and everything. But it's not going to be as the same as before. When it comes to computers, for example that we have in the libraries, you can't sit next to each other, so there's going to be some type of some type of like, distancing measures put in place in that. Again, with the libraries, you can pick up books. I don't know if this is going to continue during the fall, but when it comes to the summer right now, you can submit a request for books and materials that you want and you can just pick it up and it's very fast from what I heard and very easy so you don't have like that much contact of having to go to the stacks. From what I know, the stacks are still going to be closed for fall semester, so I want to say that the pickup service is going to continue. Other than that, I think it's just social distancing measures. There's probably not going to be big gatherings, but they haven't said anything about that. They haven't announced anything about football season or other events like homecoming, Gator Growl, like stuff like that. Um and I'm guessing it's going to come as we start the fall semester. Other than that, they're just asking people to start wearing masks from now like even in your hometown, like just start wearing masks. Be conscious, because at the end of the day, you will be coming back to UF.

Jackie Pedota 50:01

And how do you think that that these new policies are being received by by the students you know, wearing - having to wear a mask or you know, even their the the changes and what you know, the student experience is going to look like?

Celeste Velazco 50:18

I've seen a lot of students complain about like UF being online, which is understandable. They wanted to have their college experience, like even if you're a senior, you don't want to have your final semester from home, um not being able to enjoy it. And also, at the same time, like problems with tuition, right? Like, why am I paying for tuition? When it comes to social distancing, I seen a lot of UF students, going to bars, going to restaurants, not wearing a mask, just being with like, a large amount of people in closed spaces. And it's kind of confusing because I seen some of them complain about the high number of cases in Florida, but at the same time like, you're not doing your part. I seen some, I seen a lot of students selling masks, which is great. You're building your own business and at the same time you're, you're inviting people to wear a mask. There are a lot of UF mask, and I think that's gonna like the good thing about masks, like, I don't want to be like cynical with this, but you can choose the mask that you want to wear. So, you can personalize it to your face and dislikes as far as I know and UF doesn't have like any implementations of like, you can only wear a solid mask. As long as it's a mask that you can use, that it's gonna protect you from others, that's great. But I, I seen some people wearing masks in public. I guess it also depends on like the people that you're renting with. So, if you have roommates, I guess you don't have to wear masks around them because you've been quarantining with them. If you have friends that you haven't seen in a while, I seen some of them doing social distancing. But I guess we won't see until it happens. And I think there's a little bit of scare of what about students who don't want to wear a mask? What about because we've seen people in Florida who don't want to wear masks, not, they haven't been students, but I don't want to do now generalize and say all of them want to wear mask. But I think there's a scare of like, if they don't want to wear mask, then well, what do we do like, are we going to force ourselves to put in to be put in a situation where we have to have a conflict with another person and maybe expose ourselves to COVID?

Jackie Pedota 52:37

Yeah, that's definitely a real fear. And so, have you seen the university in any communication or plan or or anything that they've shared? You know, what that might look like? Like, is there going to be like, like any sort of enforcement? Are they going to get a hold? Has the university shared, you know, what happens if they don't comply?

Celeste Velazco 53:01

From what I've seen, no. Um I haven't heard anything about fines. Or like, as far as I know, you're you're just not allowed in the building and that is it. I don't know if UF is going to provide masks. Like if you go to the building and you don't have your mask, are they going to give you a mask? I don't know if that's going to be the situation. I don't know who's going to be there to enforce this. Um in any building like, this is generally in UF. I don't know if there's going to be a security guard. If it's going to be a staff member. If it's going to be a student assistant, I have no idea because UF is very brief and ambiguous in their emails, and they haven't clarified like specific instructions on how everything's going to work.

Jackie Pedota 53:53

So, uh with a university of that size, right, you know, UF is pretty large. Um you know how, if at all, has the university helped the greater Gainesville community during COVID? You know have you seen them help? Because it does um, it does encompass a lot a large part of Gainesville

Celeste Velazco 54:18

Like with the other like non-UF students to say? Like just the people who live in Gainesville?

Jackie Pedota 54:23

Yeah, you can you can you can share, you know, students but also, you know, the greater Gainesville community. I know, I know, you shared that they have the financial grants, but was there anything else that they did? You know, for students. Was there, they give out food? Did they, you know, give out give out laptops? And then also yeah, the greater community, because, you know, UF is quite large and so, did they provide anything to, you know, the greater Gainesville folks that might be impacted?

Celeste Velazco 54:56

Um, so as I say, when it comes to laptops like they just gave grants and their financial aid to students and as long as they provide enough documentation, students were able to buy whatever material they needed to work from home. When it comes to Wi-Fi, I know that they provided some instructions on how to have a better connection. Um they did [In Audible for Technical Reasons]. Um um I'm not sure that's the name, but the pantry that we have was giving - was offering pickup services. Now I think this is only for UF students or like for UF affiliated patrons, but they were offering that option of like you selecting whatever you needed and then just going and pick it up. When it comes to Gainesville community, I am not sure. I don't want to say no, because I really haven't been active about it and like looking up what they've done for the Gainesville community, so from my experience, I haven't seen anything.

Jackie Pedota 55:58

Have you seen any organizations or entities or nonprofits um, try and do do things for the Gainesville community since you didn't really hear anything coming from UF? Did you see anyone else and in the community trying to support, you know, non-students that might have been impacted?

Celeste Velazco 56:22

I really haven't. Um again, I could be wrong, like I am not exposed to everything Gainesville, but I really haven't seen--I'm trying to think, but I really haven't seen anything like COVID related with organizations related to UF I haven't.

Jackie Pedota 56:47

Okay, so I want to be respectful of your time. So, is there anything else that you would like to share with me about your experiences with COVID-19 that I've not asked about yet?

Celeste Velazco 57:06

Um, personally no, I feel like there's a lot of issues with other groups. But I feel like I'd been one of those fortunate people who haven't been as impacted. I guess something to say my brother is a doctor in Spain um, and he was definitely exposed to it so that was like another stressful situation for me. Just like, and like his wife is also a doctor, but just kind of have to go through the whole process of like, "Okay, I'm fine. But what if he gets it?" And now this point is like, well, they're fine because they've actually followed good procedures and we are not, so he's able to travel, and I haven't left my apartment in three months. So--

Jackie Pedota 57:55

Do you want to share more about that? About you know, what your brother has shared with you about his experiences and then maybe for the folks that are less familiar with, you know what what Spain has done maybe, can you can you share a little bit about about that as well? Because you talked about the the restrictions and policies being different and now, you're seeing, he's seen the effects of that, and we're kind of still in it.

Celeste Velazco 58:22

So, as I said, my brother is a doctor, his wife is a doctor as well, but they work in two - they live in Barcelona, Spain, um and they work in two different hospitals. So, when everything was starting, he told me that there were a lot of cases, and that they were trying to rotate um, the doctors in the hospitals, so they weren't as exposed. And he told me, I remember asking him that if there were any doctors who are getting sick, because it was at the same time when in the United States, we were getting a lot of cases from nurses and doctors who are getting infected. And he told me that in his hospital it wasn't that many people, because his his hospital was small. But in his wife's hospital, which was a bigger hospital, there was a whole floor who was sick. And in his wife's group, there were like two doctors and one nurse who were sick. So, again, that kind of like it was like, well, if there's so many people exposed to it, where they're working, they're definitely going to be exposed to it. And he kept calling me down and he kept just saying, like, "Don't worry about it, like, we'll be fine." And at that time in Spain, you couldn't go out. Like if you went out, it was like to walk your dog, but it wasn't like going to restaurants or anything like that. He was like, going to do groceries. Everything was pretty much closed. And they started having phases. It was like phase one, phase two. And I'm not 100% sure on like what each phase means, but basically was just like different things would open. Um again, my brother and his wife were never in infected with it that we know of, of course, they could be asymptomatic, but that we know they were never sick, so like 100% grateful. He - a lot of the things that he shared, so he works in radiology, so he would show me like the RX and of just like the lungs of people. And you I think it was shocking to see just because even people who would, who would be negative for COVID their lungs looked really bad. And you hear those stories, like if you go on Twitter or Facebook or if you just talk to a nurse, you can still see stories of people who even after they recover, they have breathing problems because their lungs get affected so much. Like this is not a virus that only affects you once and that is it, you're fine. Like this can affect you in different aspects of your body um and for some time. So, that's what he would show me, and I learned a lot of things just from talking to him, like the whole period of like incubation and when you can be contagious and all of that. But right now, since Spain doesn't have that many cases. I think they're like in the hundreds of cases. Um I think they went to like a beach today or something like that, so it's like, it's kind of sad because he can go he's a doctor and like, obviously he's taking precautions and everything and like doing the measures and he's smart about it. But at the same time, it's like you can go to the beach and I'm scared of just going to Publix right now. Like, even I think last two weeks ago, I read that some Publix employee - employees were like they were positive for COVID, so I was like, "I'm not going to Publix anymore."

Jackie Pedota 61:36

Wow. Yeah, it's um, it's interesting, the two very different experiences your brother in in Spain and you here and so um, you know, did he share with you or can you maybe share what what you think as it relates to just the differences in the administration's responses so you know, the the the the administration that's in charge in Spain, obviously, their response, as you mentioned, was a little bit different. So, can you maybe comment on on how you feel the administration responses for each places was was different or you can just comment on the like our administration's response and in comparison to how other countries have responded.

Celeste Velazco 62:23

Um so I think when it comes to our administration like you can, it's two different administration's right? You have Trump and then you have DeSantis, and even, is similar because they're following each other policies, but at the end of the day, DeSantis could do more for Florida, even if Trump doesn't want to, and as we've seen, I think the first time we saw Trump wearing a mask was like two days ago, which impressive, to be honest, that it's been four months of this and that's the first time that he was wearing a mask. DeSantis was giving a press statement I think yesterday and some - one of the people who were there, started, criticizing him because we have 1500 cases in Florida and it's all because he hasn't put up a, in place to wear mask. Like ever since we started, DeSantis said that he wasn't going to put a policy of mask mandatory, so it was up to the counties. But I think it was Tampa who decided to work to put a mask mandatory, um, Alachua county is the same, so you have to wear masks if you're going to go into some businesses. As I said, if you're going to go to Publix, you don't have to wear a mask, but some other businesses are more strict about that. But the DeSantis hasn't said anything about that. I haven't seen DeSantis, at least in the press statement that he was giving yesterday, he wasn't wearing a mask. He was making fun of New York when they were having a lot of cases and now look at us. We have more cases have they ever had. There's people who are dying. And then on the other side you have Betsy DeVos asking to have a school for teachers to come back to school to have children in school and she says that children are not as contagious as other people are, but they still are. And even if they're asymptomatic, they're gonna bring COVID to their houses. And like it's a whole process. It's not only about the children. It's about the parents. It's about their grandparents. Like there's a bunch of people who are going to get infected and Betsy DeVos is not a teacher. She was not a teacher, and she obviously doesn't know what teachers go through. So, um part of our administration definitely, we should have a mandatory mask, um, wear. We should have mandatory six-feet distances. The whole thing with the bars, like bars and restaurants started opening early, at least in Gainesville. And they shouldn't have. And I understand like all the facets of this, right? Like, there is employees who are who need the money who need to work, but I heard a lot of employees at the same time who prefer to staying at home, because they wouldn't be exposed to this. There's a lot of people who just--the whole Disney situation like just to give another example. That Walt Disney open and there were a couple of bloggers, who definitely had COVID because they had the symptoms, like they had all symptoms listed, and they didn't want to go to the hospital, and Disney didn't do anything early. "Okay, just go to the park." And that's two people who can, that we've seen this virus is very contagious. And we don't know if they're infecting um, Disney employees, if they're infecting other guests. And it's like, why is there such a need of go to Disney? Like I understand if you want to go to the beach, if you want to go walk outside, like obviously you don't want to be in your apartment, but to go to Disney, spend this money to expose and expose others seems very selfish. So, I think definitely the administration that doesn't want to um, put in place these policies, who just want to open, who just want to get the economy going, but at the same time it's people who are known for being selfish, like straight up. And in Spain, there wasn't a lot at the beginning. I remember there were a lot of policies that my brother didn't agree with, because it didn't go with COVID. But as I said, they did close some things um, to the extent of people not going. Maybe people there are more conscious. I can't talk, because I've never been in Spain, so I don't know how the community is. Um Spain is also smaller, so I, but you see in other countries like New Zealand, they close, they waited and now I think they had no cases, or they had no death, and they're opening everything again. Meanwhile, well, we're here.

Jackie Pedota 66:45

Well, thank you, Celeste for sharing your thoughts and experiences and um I don't know if there was anything else that you wanted to share. Um anything else that again, maybe we missed, or maybe you really wanted to talk about.

Celeste Velazco 67:02

I think I talked a lot.

Jackie Pedota 67:06

Well, thank you again so much. We really appreciate it. And we appreciate your your perspective especially, you know as a Latinx student.